We
represent a broad, international coalition of human rights organizations,
brought together by our common concern over Vietnam’s continued repression of
its citizens’ fundamental human rights. In advance of your upcoming visit to
Vietnam, we write to raise issues of significant concern about the Vietnamese
government’s respect for fundamental rights, international law, and human
rights.

Sometime in the next few months the United States Congress will consider whether
to ratify the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP), which would elevate
Vietnam as a full trading partner. Vietnam must be made aware of the importance
of taking action now to confirm its commitment to the human rights standards
embedded in the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement.

Of
particular concern is the imprisonment of peaceful activists and dissidents who
exercise their basic rights to expression and belief and peaceable association
and assembly. In Vietnam, religious leaders, labor rights activists, bloggers,
lawyers, and human rights advocates are being arbitrarily detained and
prosecuted without the due process protections afforded to them under
international law.

The
case of Doan Huy Chuong and Nguyen Hoang Quoc Hung, for example, has been
repeatedly raised by the international community. The two labor activists were
detained in February 2010 (along with Do Thi Minh Hanh, who was released on
medical grounds in 2014) for peacefully organizing workers at a shoe factory.
After being held for nearly eight months in pre-trial detention and after a
trial plagued with violations of fair trial standards, the two men were
convicted on vague charges of disrupting national security and sentenced to
seven years and nine years in prison, respectively. On November 14, 2012, the
United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (UNWGAD) confirmed that the
detention of Mr. Chuong and Mr. Hung was arbitrary and called for their release.
Notably, Vietnam argued to the UNWGAD that the detention of these peaceful labor
activists was justified because they were members of an illegal group: their
independent union. Yet, despite Vietnam agreeing as part of the TPP that
independent unions would be legal, more than three and a half years after the
UNWGAD decision calling for their release, these two men remain unjustly
imprisoned.

The
international community has also decried the continued imprisonment of Father
Nguyen Van Ly, a Roman Catholic priest who remains one of Vietnam’s most
prominent advocates for democratic reform. Father Ly has languished in prison
for 13 out of the last 15 years. His most recent arrest in 2007 was for
allegedly committing “very serious crimes that harmed national security” by
attempting to organize a boycott of an upcoming election. Despite the fact that
Father Ly was sentenced to eight years and despite that fact that the UNWGAD
called for his release in an opinion adopted in May 2010, the government has
failed to release him.

Physical assaults against rights campaigners, often by plainclothes agents, have
also become common. On December 6, 2015, after giving a talk about
constitutional and basic human rights, one of Vietnam’s most prominent human
rights lawyers, Nguyen Van Dai, was badly beaten by about 20 assailants. Ten
days later, on December 16, 2015, he was arrested and shortly thereafter charged
with “conducting propaganda against the state”. Mr. Dai has now been sitting
incommunicado in pre-trial detention for over four months, awaiting a
continually postponed trial.

Unfortunately, even in light of the agreements it has made as part of the TPP,
Vietnam’s crackdown on independent voices shows no signs of ceasing. We are
particularly disturbed that in the final week of March, Vietnam convicted seven
bloggers and human rights activists to prison terms ranging from seven months to
five years. These include blogger Nguyen Huu Vinh, his colleague Nguyen Thi Minh
Thuy, anti-corruption campaigner Dinh Tat Thang, blogger Nguyen Dinh Ngoc, and
lands rights activists Ngo Thi Minh Uoc, Nguyen Thi Be Hai, and Nguyen Thi Tri.

We
appreciate that the United States has openly stated its commitment to raising
the issue of human rights with Vietnamese officials, particularly Secretary
Kerry’s recent remarks that the United States “will continue to urge Vietnam to
reform certain laws that may have been used to arrest or convict somebody for
expressing a peaceful point of view.” We ask that, prior to and during your
trip, you emphasize to the government of Vietnam that its continued refusal to
permit peaceful advocacy for basic human rights impedes the progression of
U.S.-Vietnamese relations and threatens Vietnam’s ability to participate in the
TPP. We also ask that you request that the government of Vietnam repeal all laws
and administrative decrees that deny freedom of expression, association, and
peaceful assembly and enact laws codifying and protecting the fundamental human
rights.

Releasing its political prisoners would be an important step in demonstrating
that Vietnam is serious about achieving these human rights goals. We therefore
strongly urge you to take the opportunity of your visit to Vietnam to make
clear, both in private and in public, that U.S.-Vietnamese relationship will not
fundamentally advance absent meaningful human rights improvements, including the
release of imprisoned activists, an end to harassment of civil society groups,
and respect for international law.